Carrie, carpets come in all different qualities. An average quality that we sell is about $4 per square foot for a nice synthetic plush (carpet only). Most places that have no dedicated carpet professionals (like home centers) provide only cheaper carpet.

How is it cheaper? The main ingredient in carpet is yarn. The more yarn, the higher the cost. You can use more yarn in a carpet by making it a taller pile. Most people get that. But you can also use more yarn in a carpet by packing the yarns in tighter together. More yarns per square inch provides a denser, more durable carpet.

It doesn’t take much change to end up with only “half” the carpet. A carpet that is 80% as high as another carpet might seem to be “almost the same”. If we have 80% as many yarns across the width and 80% as many yarns across the length (8 yarns per inch vs. 10 yarns per inch) is “almost the same”. But the end result is a carpet with 80% of the yarn one way X 80% yarn the other way X 80% yarn on the height. That’s 0.8 X 0.8 x 0.8 = 0.51 = 51%. That’s how they fool you into thinking you have a bargain. But it’s half the carpet.

The consequences are serious. Years ago, people routinely had carpet for a decade or two and it looked nice. Today, with people looking at “what’s the cheapest?”, you have people buying these inferior carpets. I have had clients tell me things like “it’s not worth spending money on carpet because carpet only lasts a year or two for me”. Well, the problem there is buying inferior carpet. Buying inferior (“cheap”) anything leads to disappointment.

When we sell remnants, we are looking for quality carpets. We are not looking for “what is the cheapest junk out there?”. That’s not a bargain. It just results in disappointed customers.

Quality carpets at a really good price are what we do well. That’s why that 12′ x 17′ carpet is a really good value.